Scratched!

The Chocolate Plant received its first proper public outing as part of a Scratch Night performance at Exeter Bikeshed Theatre on Sunday 27th November 2011.

On a clear and starry night, Anna and Bea headed down the M5 to present some work in progress to an audience of Devonian strangers, people who would not be too close or kind to tell us what they really thought, and people who were not immediately connected to what had been going on in Bristol over the last two hundred odd years. As well as getting feedback on which direction to take, we wanted to test how the show would go down if it toured.

An audience of over a hundred people, aged from 15 to 80, squeezed into the theatre bar to view and comment upon four pieces of work in progress. We were third on the bill, and offered a 20 minute multi-media stand up presentation with an overview of some of the content that we are working on. We were clear that we were not demonstrating the form of our show (which will be a much more theatrical drama documentary, performed by actors, with music and media) but that we needed help grappling with the story.

We asked for feedback addressing these questions: What resonates with you? Which bits of the story should we focus on?

We got many useful suggestions from those who came up to speak to us. We were happily surprised by the range of ideas it sparked for people and it gave us an excuse to crack open a tin of Roses, well, it is nearly Christmas.   


Below are some of the comments from the feedback forms.

Very interesting and a real eye opener – as it was meant to be 

A really nice mix of humour and passion. 

It was great. You are great. Do more. It really sparked a debate.

You could hear the audience recognising the contemporary relevance. Those bursts of oohs and aaghs, and the occasional gasp.

I found the break up of families and the social histories the most interesting part. Hostile takeovers of profitable companies are so damaging. This story needs to be told.

Consumers should be more informed, and can then dictate. Why is it cheap? Where does it come from? These connections matter.

It made me start thinking about the riots, about youth unemployment, about the loss of those family companies. It’s scary.

If you can bring something like that to the stage, that’s fantastic

Having just been made redundant after 39 years I felt for these workers.

Unexpected and quite brilliant. Provided no end of thinking about riots, banks, care, the camps.

Really interesting – fantastic delivery Very well developed – I look forward to seeing the next version. Do bring it back.

We hope that these comments, and conversations with those who have asked to stay in touch, will support our creative development. 

Thanks to the Exeter Bikeshed Theatre for hosting us, and for providing such a varied and dynamic audience.


Now if only we could find a way to do the research without eating too much chocolate...

Anna Farthing here. As Bea is going to be very busy over the next few weeks on other things, including a new draft of her play for January’s BOV Ferment, I will pick up the progress report.

There has been much squealing with delight in archives recently. We visited Alan Freke at the Frenchay Village Museum, who showed us a fine collection of objects, archives and ephemera relating to the Fry family and their connection to the area. There was even a box of Fry’s chocolate, well past its sell by date. It’s a great little place and highly recommended. As it is housed in the entrance lodge to Frenchay Hospital, you can even get a coffee from the lovely ladies of the WRVS.

http://www.frenchaymuseumarchives.co.uk/

Best before....

Alan’s book about the Fry’s has also been a great aide to our research. You can buy one following this link.

While in Frenchay we had our second session with Hugh Evans, former Hygiene Manager at Somerdale, who has been explaining modern manufacturing processes to us, and what Somerdale was really like to work in at the point at which it closed. His pride in the company and in his work shines through his stories, and we look forward to talking to more of his former colleagues soon.

Hugh Evans and Alan Freke with Bea in the wonderful Frenchay Village Museum

On Monday we took some students on the Bristol University MA Performance Research to the Bristol Record Office, where Graham and Sarah showed them how it all works using the Fry archive as an example. We found recipes and packaging labels from 1878 destined for Germany, France, Spain and South America, along with carbon copies of letters to and from customers all over the world, as well as competitors such as Rowntrees and Cadburys. 

The correspondence showed that this really was the first global trade, and the company was dealing with a wide range of dilemmas including corporate responsibility, fair trade and worker’s welfare from the outset. These dilemmas, and how they were approached, will provide us with plenty of drama. The students were stunned to discover that the manufacturing of eating chocolate was actually begun in Bristol, and that this was not well known. As they are an international bunch, we were heartened with their interest in the story. It backs up our feeling that this really is a story that can resonate around the world.

Graham lets us poke about in the archive; a Bristol charter from the 14th Century!

The students then explored Bristol city centre with old maps, and we got lost among the alleys and passageways, trying to work out where everything was before it was either bulldozed or blitzed. We tried to imagine the rumble of machinery, the smell of chocolate, and the sound of hymns being sung by Fry’s Angels. At St Nicholas’s Market, we looked at the small suppliers and independent producers who may be founding their own food dynasties. And we finished off, of course, with hot chocolate all round.

On the wall of what is now Subway in Broadmead

Recently we have also been reading the transcripts of the Select Committee and The Takeover Panel regarding the Kraft takeover of Cadburys. The verbatim dialogue gets unbelievably heated at times, verging on the surreal. Almost as surreal as the ‘life of a cocoa bean’ published in 1928 in the bicentennial works magazine....

From the Fry's Bi-Centennial Magazine, 1928

Characters, situations, songs and images are emerging...and will be developed through a number of workshops and scratch nights over the next few months. 

We are delighted to have won the support not only of Bristol Museums Galleries and Archives, but also The Tobacco Factory Theatre. We now know this project can reach a broad and diverse audience. The next step for us, is to raise the funds to make it happen.

In the meantime....Support your local archives! The call up system may be a bit like Argos, but it's free, the staff are much nicer and the stuff lasts much, much longer.

I am a firm believer in just going and having a poke about in things; it really is amazing what you can uncover with a bit of curiosity and a good old rummage.

This week, finding myself back in Devon I went for a nosy in one of those village shops that veer somewhere between the League of Gentlemen and a Dickens novel. In the village where my parents now live right at the bottom of the hill, next to the Co-Op and before the village hall, lies a book shop run by a lady who, without being unkind, must be at least 4000 years old. The front window of the shop is entirely obscured by yellowing local adverts for piano lessons, a cat that I imagine is still lost and Millennium eve karaoke. Walking through the door you have to squeeze yourself past piles of books and magazines although knock some over, as you are bound to, and you'll probably find they're issues of Parade or Life from around 1927.

The best bit however is that the shop goes on. And on. And on. Row upon row of old books on chinese cooking, sea creatures, Brownie annuals, alchemy and panto until eventually you end up in the garden. Yes, the garden. Outside. Where there are more books. Clambering over an engineless car I found a garage of books which I'm guessing have been there for some time judging by the amount of ivy growing over them. Braving stinging nettles, miscellaneous moulds and whatever was scuttling about under the Dick Francis I was rewarded with some 1930s' guides to Somerset, a 1950s' Bourneville visitor's guide and a 1970s' Cadbury's cookbook.

Come the day that I ever fancy a chocolate porcupine or 'creme' made with cornflower all my hard work will have been amply rewarded. I do love research sometimes.

It's not often you get to spend time with members of two famous dynasties but last friday I had the pleasure of meeting with both descendants of the Cadbury and Fry families to talk chocolate, Kraft and all things Somerdale. If only I'd bumped into a Terry or a Rowntree, I could have made it a hat trick. Nevertheless it was a great and a slightly surreal pleasure which I look forward to repeating in the coming months.


Support for The Plant is gathering at a pace with Keynsham Town Council and Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives officially signed up as partners. On which note, special mention must go to Clive Burlton and John Penny for sharing their archive expertise with us, allowing me to wallow in glorious hypnotic black and white footage of oozing chocolate, spruce whizzing machinery and thousands of dapper 1920s' ladies and gents pouring through the now deserted gates of Somerdale.  


Getting my grubby mitts on all this wonderful archive certainly is in the spirit of Fry's motto: Happiness in Industry. If only I'd considered the catastrophic consequences of beginning a project about chocolate and a diet at the same time. Having spent the last three days fantasising about a Double Decker I have a sinking feeling only one of these ventures will prove successful... 

Thursday 15th provided us with a wonderful kick off to our story of The Plant, beginning with a visit to the Fry's Club and ending in bandstand of all places!

We were really were overwhelmed by the generosity of the people we met and look forward to working with them and many more of you to tell the fascinating stories behind the headlines and hysteria.

There may even be a chocolate carnival in the works, we'll keep you posted...

Here you can follow the progress of a brand new show, The Plant, a live documentary focussing on the closure of the Somerdale plant in Keynsham following the controversial take over of Cadbury by international food giant Kraft.


Created by writer Bea Roberts in collaboration with Anna Farthing of the award winning Harvest Heritage Arts and Media and Theatre Bristol, The Plant will fuse interviews with factory workers, locals, historians, politicians, descendants of the Cadbury and Fry families with archive footage, animation, storytelling and even the odd powerpoint slide, The Plant is an exciting and prescient new project to tell the story of this plant and its people.


In the wake of the ‘Big Society’ and soaring unemployment, The Plant examines 100 years of changing attitudes of employers and employees, giant corporations, philanthropism, heritage and Curly Wurlys.


What happened to the ‘principled capitalism’ of the Quaker industrial giants? Who does Cadburys really belong to? What happens to a plant when you sever its roots?


We believe passionately that this story deserves to be told and are keen to talk to anyone connected with the factory or affected by its closure. If you would like to tell share your story or thoughts on the recent events or just find out a bit more please see our Contact page.